I Give Him Till Sunset
by Poohdog
Summary: Ted Tonks's daughter has just moved back after the fall of the Ministry. With her husband... the werewolf. A conversation between Ted and his daughter after Remus leaves in Deathly Hallows. One-shot. Obvious undertones of Remus/Tonks and Ted/Andromeda


**Disclaimer: Not mine. Just playing with someone else's characters.**

I heard her sniffling when I walked down the stairs to the basement and I froze, my ears listening to the sound, my hand with my wand waiting over the plant I'd been about to water. Dromeda didn't know what I was growing down in the basement. I'd tell Dora eventually but Dromeda would not take well to my growing Devil's Snare in the basement, especially with that incident at St. Mungo's a couple years previous. Still, the plant was young and as I wasn't allowing it to be carnivorous, it was rather fragile. I heard the sniffle again and then a dull bang of someone running into something and a swear mixed in with a slight sob. Fragile plant or daughter who's clearly upset, I debated. Well the plant was just a baby where as Dora was fully grown I told myself as I put my wand in my pocket. And the plant was fragile whereas Dora, by her choice in career, by her choice in company, and, let's face it, by her choice in husband, had declared herself capable of taking on quite a lot, I assured myself as I opened the door to the 'greenhouse' I had created in the basement into the small open area. There were two other rooms in the basement. One was a bathroom that one never knew how many spiders were invading. The other was Dora's bedroom, the one she'd had since we had moved here after the first war ended when she was ten, the one she was sharing with her husband after they'd had to leave her apartment just days before.

Husband, I thought as I almost just opened the door. My Dora had a husband. Wrinkling my nose at the thought, I knocked on the door. To my relief, she opened her door a moment later, making herself smile. "Hi Dad," she chirped, opening the door wide. There were clothes around the room, just like always. She could be my sixteen year old again except for the thin gold ring glistening on her left hand. "What's up?" she asked. Her hair was down in loose curls today, her natural brown color. She was too tired to morph it fully but there was something she was nervous about; she'd wanted curls to play with when she decided on her hair this morning. Naturally Dora's hair was wavy, somewhere between my straight blonde hair and her mother's curly chestnut. And right now she wanted to pretend nothing was wrong.

"I was wondering if you would help me with something," I told her. "I want to show you something, but, er, don't tell your mother." She raised an eyebrow and a slow smile, a real one this time, crossed her face.

"What have you gotten a hold of now?" she asked, following behind me, shutting her door on the way out as we walked across the small open area and into the area where I grew my pet projects.

"I got a permit," I protested.

"Really?"

"Well, I filled one out and in normal times I know I'd get permission," I assured her. She smiled and then looked over at the plant.

"Devil's Snare," she remarked, looking at me with interest. "Why exactly are you growing Devil's Snare Dad?"

"Because that's what I'm good at. Dueling's not my specialty, never has been. Herbology on the other hand, I can do great things with that."

"There are wards around the house again and-"

"You know there's still a risk Dora," I told her. She sighed and nodded, leaning against the wall, crossing her arms over her stomach. I heard a pop to my left, and I looked over at the source of the noise, a plant of my own creation sitting in the corner.

"I'll be here. I'm a trained Auror."

"You've got to play the part at the Ministry then, don't you?"

"I quit a few days before the Ministry fell," she said quietly as she sighed and broke away from the wall. She stumbled over the roots of a plant, reaching across the small pathway in order to get the attention of its mate on the other side. It was a good thing she managed to steady herself because I was too shocked to help her.

"You quit?" She nodded, looking up at me as she started to play with her curls.

"If the Ministry goes back to normal I'll join again. I just- right now it wasn't safe for me there."

"I'm not going to argue with you Dora. I know it's not safe for you and I'd prefer that you weren't there if you're going to get hurt. But you've never seemed to care very much about your own safety."

"Thanks," she said, rolling her eyes and giving me a light grin. She knelt down on the ground and began sifting through the dirt of a mini fruit salad tree that had been my main pet project before the Ministry had fallen, before the visit Dromeda and I had gotten. I swallowed. It wasn't the first time I'd been attacked. Marrying the sister of Bellatrix Black at the start of the first war wasn't a good way to stay scar free. Nonetheless, it was an entirely different experience to be tortured for information at forty-six than it was to be hurt for the woman I loved at twenty. I'm not afraid to admit that it scared me shitless.

"What I mean to say," I said, kneeling down next to her and pulling a small banana off the tree and beginning to peel it, "is why would you have quit when you've never seemed scared before?" I offered her the small banana and she laughed, taking it from me.

"I feel like the monkey who didn't get to the banana tree in time for the big bananas," she told me with a smile that only barely reached her eyes, the same eyes as her mother. It took more effort for her to change the pigments of living cells than dead ones. That was why she wore her hair different colors but didn't change her eyes on a regular basis. And she was tired today. She hadn't even changed the colors of her nails. I got up off the ground and she followed suit. She sighed lightly as she turned around so her back was facing me, her arms crossing over her stomach again. "Dad, I'm pregnant." My mind went blank. After a moment she turned around. "Dad?" she asked, looking at me carefully.

"You're pregnant," I restated, to show her that I was keeping up. She nodded.

"How far along?"

"Not very. I only missed my-" I flinched and she stopped from mentioning her menstrual cycle. There were some things I did not want to hear about my daughter. "Less than two months. I found out a week ago." She sighed. "We found out a week ago." We. That "we" that meant my daughter wasn't Nymphadora Tonks anymore. No, no, Nymphadora Tonks had been my daughter, my little girl. Now there was a Lupin added on to it, and she was married to a man old enough to be her second father. Okay, maybe not that old. He had only been eleven, nearly twelve when she was born. He still felt so old compared to her; then again, he didn't. At the same time Dora seemed always young, childish, there was a part of her that was always old. Dromeda and I had her in the very beginning of the first war; the war that both stole away part of her childhood and trapped part of it inside her forever.

"Have you told your mother?" he asked. She shook her head, playing with her curls.

"Mum's not- she would have told you if she knew."

"Mum's not what?" I pressed gently.

"She's not as- I mean I guess neither of you are really- I- she doesn't like that Remus is a werewolf," she sighed then looked down at her feet. "Neither do you actually."

"Did you expect us too?" I asked in surprise, frowning in confusion.

"Well, no I just- I didn't expect you to dislike it. You and Mum, you've always told me to treat everyone equally and then-"

"This is different."

"How?" she demanded, her eyes fierce. It was the same look she had given me when she was four and demanded to know why someone had called me a mud-blood, the same look when she'd wanted to know why people were killing each other when she was six. It was the look that really meant "that's not fair and I'd like to see you try and justify it." I sighed and unlike the other times, I tried to answer her.

"If you were just his friend, we'd be fine with it Dora. If you wanted to be his friend, even a good friend it wouldn't matter. But we don't want you to get hurt. He is a werewolf and if you're married that means you'll likely be in the same house as him when he transforms and I don't-"

"He takes Wolfbane," she interrupted, the glare still on her face, her arms crossed on her chest.

"But I have every right to be worried about my daughter," I pressured, trying to focus on saying clearly what I'd been thinking since she had told us about Remus Lupin, the man she loved, the part-time werewolf. "Potions are not infallible. It's hard for me to deal with the fact that he is a werewolf once a month and he could kill you. It's hard for me to deal with the social hurt that you're putting yourself through because it's painful to deal with the idea of my daughter being hurt."

"Because I was under such good status being the daughter of a 'mud-blood' and a 'blood-traitor' on top of being a shapeshifter in my own right," she bit sarcastically. I sighed.

"Dora, please."

Her face softened a little and she looked down beginning to play with her curls again. "He loves me Dad."

"I know."

"You do?"

"It's as plain as the nose on your face. Well, actually, let's go with my nose because his nose can change into a snout and your nose can change into about a million noses," I told her with a grin. She rolled her eyes but didn't smile. Normally she smiled. "Then again, I can't see my nose all that well so perhaps we ought to go with your mother's nose." She forced a grin and I decided it wasn't worth it. "How's he feel about the baby?" I asked her. Her eyes snapped shut. I'd hit on something.

"He's left."

My first thought was to kill him. My second thought was to bring him back and hug him. Dora blinked in confusion, seeing the thoughts cross my face. "So he shares the same view as me."

"Yes," she growled.

"He thinks he's dangerous and he's going to hurt you if not physically than socially."

"Dad stop!" she demanded angrily.

"I didn't say I agreed that he should have left you."

"You sound like-"

"It was your choice as much as his to get married. You're stubborn as an ox and I don't imagine anyone could have talked you into a wedding if there wasn't a good reason. I also imagine that it was your choice to get pregnant as he doesn't-"

"That was actually a neither. I'm not quite sure what happened. We were both really careful about charms because-"

"Dora! There are some things I really don't want to talk about with you."

"Sorry," she said, blushing, her hair beginning to turn red. Not brown. It had turned brown the year before which I knew had something to do with him leaving her. That was when she'd lost her ability to morph.

"You think he's coming back," I commented assuredly.

"Yes. He won't leave the Order, won't leave Harry. And none of them would let him leave me," she answered matter-of-factly.

"And you'll take him back," I stated, equally sure.

"It would kill him if I didn't. And I love him too much to want him dead." She looked me straight in the eye and I knew that, despite the extremeness of the statement, she wasn't exaggerating. Her head shook and she looked down at the ground again pensively. "I never thought I'd be the one who loved the least in a relationship. I've always been the one who's thrown in the most, who wants to make things work the most. Merlin, I'm a bloody Hufflepuff!" She shook her head and then looked at me, a strange look on her face. It wasn't sappy or bewildered or a statement of fact. It was some odd combination of the three I couldn't clearly identify. "But it's not like that with Remus. He loves me more than I love him and that's hard for me to see. If I told him I needed him to sit through a Celestina Warbeck concert for me, he would do it," she said, making herself grin. "You know I couldn't do that for anybody." She swallowed hard, crossing her arms over her stomach again. "He doesn't think he's good enough for me, for the baby, doesn't think he ever could be." I looked at her, her hair now back to brown, the curls framing her face. I slipped closer to her and drew her into a hug. My daughter, my baby. And my grandchild. She was carrying my grandchild.

"I'm glad you married him Dora," I told her, pulling back. She looked up at me with wide eyes. I smiled. "I think he's the only man I could ever agree with on the fact that he doesn't deserve you. Nobody could."

"Really?" she asked me. I nodded.

"Just give me some time with the werewolf thing, okay?" She nodded in agreement. "And don't think that because you told me first you've gotten out of telling your mother you're pregnant."

"Oh come on," she said sharply, pulling away.

"I'd tell her soon too. She's decided to cook dinner tonight and I think she'd feel bad if she poisoned not only you but a baby as well."

"Dad, you know you want to tell her," she laughed.

"No, she'd want to hear it from you."

"But then she'll ask why I was so irresponsible."

"Oh like either your mother or I is one to talk."

"Dad!"

"Well honestly, Dora, we were married in April of the year you were born. Your birthday's in October and you came a bit late not a lot early. I should hope by now you'd managed to figure out that basic math."

"I'd just tried not to think about it," she muttered.

"Tell your mother."

"Fine, after Remus gets back."

"Agreeable. When did he leave?"

"About an hour ago."

"I give him till sunset before he comes crawling back."

"Do you now?" she asked with a small smile.

"Well, of course. He's already had to separate himself from you for a year and with that look he gives you every time you turn around, there's no way he could manage to stay away that long again, even if he thinks he could."

"Ah Dad that's sweet," she said with a soft smile. I grinned back.

"Of course he can't resist my good work," I told her, pinching her cheek lightly. She rolled her eyes again and then turned around.

"Pretentious Ravenclaw."

"Pompous Hufflepuff."

**The more I write Tonks, the more she really, really strikes me as a Hufflepuff (good thing I suppose since J.K. Rowling has said she is one). Is that weird? But at any rate, hope you liked it!**


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